I recently reviewed Hasbro’s new packaging, but now it’s time to get into the toys themselves. When the Hasbro switch was announced everyone complained that they would take our Legends line and corrupt it with less articulated, poorly painted, less detailed, childish toys, and while these toys aren’t 100% yet, Hasbro is not “ruining” the line.

Okay, first and foremost, what happened to our articulation? These solid feet and hands don’t look right on Legends toys, but let’s remember that ToyBiz added about 6 points of articulation (up to 34-36 from 30) to its figures over time, and there was still Toad with 10 points and Red Skull with 18. Also, many smaller points, like those articulated fingers, were often common to many toys. Hasbro just needs some time to build up a bank of fingers and chests. They do cost $10,000 apiece to tool up for.

Next, on the flipside of articulation, we have customized pieces. Marvel Legends used to give us Cyclops and Punishers, and Angels and Falcons who were all pretty similar. Each one had a unique head sculpt, but you could almost pick out the basic body types. Every figure in this Hasbro line sports a very unique sculpt. And for those of you who remove them from the packaging, you’ll notice they’re all made of heavier plastic. It’s a question of whether you give people more generic pieces, or fewer specialized ones.

Also, where are the comics guys? It’s called synergy. Marvel should be pushing them upon you. The comics used to lend such credibility to the toys! I’ll write soon about why they should (must) return.

Finally, there’s the paint. They did a good job on the wash on Annihillus’ face and Beast’s fur, but the White Queen’s face and Hercules’ skin look like they just used a spray on tan. I’m really waiting on Series 2 to see if they improve on this, after all, they could still just be warming up.

This was a good first series. I hope the comics return, but Hasbro just needs time to tool up its paint guys to do more washing and build up its bank of little pieces, at which point I bet the “36 points of articulation!” sticker will return. I think the fact that this was a small series (Six figures and no variants) and the BAF was low profile (Annihillus who? Did I misspell that?) shows that they’re starting small.

These growing pains will pass.